Force of Nature - 13. Epilogue

Early afternoon light brightened the small living room. I was bent over a stack of papers, the cat hovering in my lap. At first Sadie was pretty jealous of the little furball, but her tennis ball kept her easily distracted. Stretching I rolled my head around loosening the tension in my neck jumping when a smaller, softer hand than I was used to slid across the small coffee table and grabbed hold of mine.

“Enough working,” Amelia said squeezing my hand, “I want to see more pictures.”

“I’d like to see those of your penis again,” Adam said on my other side. My face flushed glancing across the coffee table to where he sat.

“Because you like it when I blush and stutter,” I countered rolling my eyes. I hadn’t expected my baby pictures to show so much skin, but it was a time when I knew that Mom still loved me. I like to hold on to thinking that she did, in her own way. Looking over at Amelia it was difficult to understand why though, since it was the same woman that let Dad keep us apart.

“We looked a lot alike as babies,” Amelia offered and I glanced up at her. I hated that my heart fluttered when I looked at her. Even though I had visited her a lot, the similarities of our eyes and hair, the curve of our full lips, sent a wave of energy through me. I wondered when that would wear off and I wondered if the smile she gave me every time our eyes met, meant that she felt it too.

“We’re almost finished ironing out the final details for your renovation,” I said as I felt myself gently dragged from the table.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said rolling her eyes. “You’ve done too much, getting me their hush money.”

“They’ll pay,” I said smiling, “whenever I feel they’re lapsing back into bad habits.”

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” she countered shaking her head. “They’re better at it than you are.”

“I’m still working on the loophole Dad’s lawyers snuck through,” I said shrugging. I looked across the table to see Adam looking at me in the same worried expression Amelia had. Although he was a bit more enthusiastic with my plan to ‘screw them good,’ as he put it. He just didn’t want me to right now.

“Do you even want to work under him?” Adam asked crossing his arms and leaning his head to rest on the coffee table. I could tell he would rather be out of the house, Amelia would too. I promised that I would help her get her school updated and after she received the money from our parents, we had began working on that.

“No, I don’t,” I answered. It had been a circular discussion since the last night I saw them. They had expected me to come back and stay, to work things through. To continue with the lies they so thoroughly woven into our lives.

It took about a week to forgive Adam for his lying. I finally caved, only because Lucas nearly killed me with his endless energy and Tania’s only spare bed was a lumpy sofa couch. I finally agreed to move into the apartment with him. With my stuff overflowing every inch of it, I thought he would tire of me, my mess, and Sadie. He never seemed to, although he cussed under his breath when we got a nasty letter from our neighbors about Sadie’s bathroom habits. I had cleaned up after her on walks, apparently he hadn’t.

What my parents didn’t know though, is that I went to the police. I wanted to know if there was something I could have done for Grandma. When I finally realized that I couldn’t, I gave up on that and started focusing on getting Dad to cooperate with me and the company. To at least allow me to have a clean break and not hold that four year loophole over me. Not to hold it over Amelia, but that was so easily accomplished he couldn’t do anything without causing a lot of scrutiny that her sudden involvement would cause.

I was unable to uncover much else, I wasn’t trusted within the company enough to be given access to the documents so deeply buried. Or who to even trust to ask, I didn’t know how many pockets my father’s money had filled over the years. I had a feeling there weren’t many important people left out.

I had also promised to keep my mouth shut, if they kept cooperating with me. I knew I was more or less blackmailing them, but so far I only asked for what I thought people deserved. That centered around Amelia and her school, he had agreed to pay for the cost of renovations on top of her trust fund, double that of mine. Since I argued that she missed vacations, holidays, and birthdays that I got to enjoy. They didn’t fight me, knowing that I was still angry enough to follow through on my threats.

I just didn’t enjoy doing it. I wanted to wash my hands of them, but I wanted to make sure they finished what I started. The school would be finished before I walked away completely. It was my window, if I couldn’t find the leverage I needed, I would walk. I had their temper at least and that got me this far. It was difficult when I visited Amelia though, she hadn’t wanted to be involved in their mess at all and told me not to be either.

“Alright pictures,” I said knowing I would lose the battle. She let go of my hand and clapped before she stood and disappeared down the hallway to her room. Adam stood and handed me my bag full of old photo albums. There was still the digital pictures to stream through as well, but she could do that on her own, I had given her the files. We were mostly interested in looking at the pieces of our lives we missed together, we had started with baby pictures. Now we were getting up into the school years. I had went through quite a nerdy stage with oversized glasses and a fascination with animals and space.

When she returned with her boxes of pictures she dumped them and we all sprawled out in the living room floor on pillows and rummaged through her stack. She took the albums from me and opened them smiling.

“Look at those glasses,” she said laughing as she held the album up so Francis could get a look at the picture. I blushed when Adam snickered.

“At least I didn’t have Hermione hair,” I countered and she laughed elbowing me in the shoulder as we sorted through them.

Francine getting up to order a pizza for dinner only marked the passage of time. I glanced at my phone to see that it was nearly six, we had been talking and looking through pictures for hours, although it didn’t seem that long.

“I better go play with Sadie before she destroys something,” I said stretching before I started putting pictures back inside the box.

“Can I keep a couple of these?” Amelia asked holding up the album. I nodded my head smiling. She wanted to keep one or two of me from about every year, to mark the changes that I had made. She smiled taking out the picture with the large framed glasses first and then one of me and my parents, Grandma included, when we visited the Grand Canyon.

“We’ve not been to the Grand Canyon,” Francis said when Amelia handed her the loose pictures to look over.

“We need to go,” I said smiling, “maybe after the school is finished, to celebrate?”

“That would be nice,” she said and I glanced over at Adam. He was putting the top back on the last old shoebox of Amelia’s pictures and placed it on the coffee table. We would probably be looking at them again before I left, it was fun though, hearing the stories behind those pictures.

Walking outside, Sadie bounced up from her nap on the porch. We were currently on her third tennis ball, she had worn the other two out to the point I was afraid she’d choke on the frayed pieces. Picking it up I bounced it once and caught it. Her nails clicked on the painted wood before I threw it as far as I could. I watched it bounce over the small white picket fence, then I watched her soar over it to retrieve the ball. Then she would walk around the side to the open gate and bounce back up to me. I knew the jumping would slow her down and give me time to breathe between tosses.

“I hope she never gets tired of this,” I said turning to Adam. He smiled turned to me.

“I know, we’d be in some deep shit if she does get bored,” he said taking the ball from her when she made it back to the porch. He tossed it farther than I did and I looked out across the golf course Amelia’s house neighbored. The people I could see through the scattering of trees were taking putts on the green.

“What’s Lexi up to?” I asked knowing he would have gotten some text messages from her already.

“Back at the summer grind,” he said shrugging. “She hasn’t recently come into some money like me, so she has to work.”

“Gold digger,” I joked elbowing him in the stomach. “How do you get out of not working so much really?”

“Ear splitting orgasms,” Adam answered and I watched Sadie come around the corner and back into the yard. “You don’t know what a good pair of lips can get a man.”

“I guess not,” I said rolling my eyes picking up the ball that Sadie dropped at my feet. Taking it easier on her I just bounced it across the front lawn.

“I will have to start working regularly, I’m nearly out of my saved up vacation days,” he said as we both sat on the top step. He leaned his shoulder against mine and I smiled thinking that my fears of using him were stupid. I couldn’t have trusted what I felt, even so early in our already fast relationship though. Now I didn’t feel like I doubted myself much at all, especially when I caught myself staring. I had missed him that week I stubbornly camped out on Tania’s couch ignoring him. He thought he had gotten off free after that stormy kiss in the rain, I hadn’t admitted to feeling more awake in that moment than I had in months, probably years. That week of not being around him only made me realize how securely he had already managed to entangle himself into my life.

“I’ve been looking at job opportunities,” I said watching as he threw the ball across the fence again.

“I do have community service coming up too,” he said turning to study me. “For beating the shit out of that perverted drunk.”

“I know,” I said, “you have it circled on your calendar, can I come?”

“You would want to walk around in the heat all day building houses for charity?” He asked cocking an eyebrow. “Can you even work a hammer?”

“Fuck you,” I said rolling my eyes. “And yeah.”

“Just promise to wear tight jeans and a tool belt,” he said looking me over. I felt myself blush and shook my head. “And boots.”

“How many kinks do you have that I don’t know about?” I asked, but we both fell silent when the front door opened.

“What are you two talking about?” Amelia asked from behind us as she walked to the front step to sit down beside me.

“Nothing,” I answered noticing my voice cracked. I glanced over my shoulder when Adam coughed and adjusted himself in his shorts looking out across the front lawn.

“I see,” she said and I looked over at her to see the smirk fading. “You two are so cute, I wish Francine would find someone.”

“She’s a lesbian?” I asked and I saw Amelia look over her shoulder towards the front door.

“She doesn’t think that I know,” Amelia whispered and I noticed that her whisper was just as loud as her talking voice. I smiled glancing down at the ball that Sadie put in front of us. She looked at each of us to see which one would pick it up and toss it next. Amelia and I reached at the same time, but I let her grab the ball and throw it.

“But you’re fine with me being gay?” I asked and she laughed.

“I’m just thrilled to finally be with you,” she answered leaning against me. “It doesn’t bother me at all. Does it bother you that I’m deaf?”

“No,” I said frowning. It was a big reason why Dad and Mom sent her to live with Francine though.

“Don’t hate them forever, they are still our parents,” She sighed hating that we were back to talking about them. “They are the only parents you know, maybe someday you could try.”

“Someday I might,” I said smiling.

“Francine told me about our family history a long time ago,” Amelia said, “I guess through that I kind of stopped hating them. Grandma wanted me to know it, Fran would have wanted me to just know Dad’s side of the family, but even they aren’t so nice.”

“I’ve never really heard it,” I countered, “not in any way that I would believe.”

“Well our Great Great Grandfather started the construction company not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor,” Amelia said and I knew the story, but wanted her to tell me. I wanted to make sure that our stories were the same or if mine had been edited over the years by the people around me. “Anyway, at first it didn’t do so well, but then he decided to help develop machinery and supplies to aid the war, made a lot of money. Enough to focus back on construction. He and our Great Grandmother had five children, three sons and a daughter, another daughter died not long after she had been born. The oldest was supposed to take on the company, but he died while working on, something, I can’t remember.”

“Building a dam, he fell,” I answered and she nodded. “The youngest son died in the war and the middle one ran off with some woman that already had a husband.”

“Scandalous as shit,” Adam said and I shook my head as Sadie trotted around the corner and up to the stairs. At first she was reluctant to let us have the ball, but now she would drop it and push it towards us if we ignored her.

“So that left the daughter, but no one would have left a company of that size with her, so instead they gave it to her husband who had worked there forever,” Amelia said trying not to laugh.

“Then Grandma’s brothers both died in Vietnam,” I added glancing at Adam. “Grandpa was the first person in our family to will anything to a woman, but instead of giving it to Mom he chose Grandma and my Dad, he always had a distant relationship with Mom.”

“And that’s what started this whole mess,” Amelia said smiling.

“What is it that you like to do for fun?” I asked wanting to get off the subject of our family’s history.

“Francine and I do a lot of shopping, bicycle riding in Landy Park, and around,” Amelia answered shrugging. “I stay in touch with my students, mentoring some of them.”

“That’s nice,” Adam said as Sadie rounded the corner and came bouncing up to us.

“She’s like the Energizer Bunny,” she said laughing as she tossed the ball again.

“I can’t ride a bike,” I said and I heard Adam snort beside me.

“Really?” She asked turning to face me.

“No, I’ve not been on one since I was like three,” I answered feeling my face flush.

“We can teach you!” Amelia squealed her eyes bright. “Can you ride Adam?”

“I think so,” he said looking across me to her. “I’ve not been on one for a long time, but I’m naturally good at everything.”

“Shut up,” I groaned shaking my head. “I don’t know about riding a bicycle.”

“Oh come on,” she said, “it’s fun, you can probably teach Sadie to jog beside you.”

“Or drag me to my death,” I said and she laughed.

“Where is Sadie anyway?” Adam asked and I looked out across the lawn. I expected her to be coming around the corner to the gate.

“Oh shit,” I groaned when I finally saw a black thing streak across the green manicured grass of the golf course. “She’s found the golf balls.”

“We better go get her,” Adam said standing he jumped the last two stairs and took off jogging towards the gate. I glanced over at Amelia when she smiled and laughed before jumping up to catch up with Adam. I couldn’t help laughing when I stood to follow.